


The Stars They Glow

by StardustAndAsh



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Order 66, That's Not How The Force Works, What-If, canon adjacent, except i say it does
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27242758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StardustAndAsh/pseuds/StardustAndAsh
Summary: "The day Commander Tapal brought his new Padawan on board the Albedo Brave was the day the 13th battalion fell in love with Cal Kestis. They couldn’t help it. The kid was shy, but from the very first clumsy salute he offered them to the fierce, unpolished fighting style he showed on the battlefield they unanimously agreed that this was their jetii’ika and they would be his vode."Cal still ends up on Bracca after Order 66, but this time he's not alone. Two clones are along for the ride, and where theirjetii'ikagoes, they go.
Relationships: BD-1 & Cal Kestis, Cal Kestis & Clone Troopers, Cal Kestis & The Mantis Crew
Comments: 13
Kudos: 144





	1. Prologue - The Order

**Author's Note:**

> prepare for gratuitous use of (probably) bastardized mando'a and many fuzzy found family feels. also h/c, because thats all i write.

Cal was thirteen and no stranger to battle. He’d been in his fair share of skirmishes against the Separatists alongside Master Tapal and the 13th battalion. He knew he wasn’t the bravest soldier, but he had only been a Padawan for two years now. There was still so much for Master Tapal to teach him, and he had promised the next time they visited the temple he would find a Master to help Cal with his psychometry.

But here they were, standing in the command deck of the Albedo Brave, with Commander Nova’s corpse still cooling on the floor and Cal could feel nothing but fear and an unnerving emptiness in the force. Usually the star destroyer was alive with their troopers but it was if they had all been snuffed out at once.

“What’s happening?” Why did the Commander just..” Cal felt the anxiety rising in him, making his heart beat fast, the thud of it in his ears stifling his connection to the force.

“Padawan, something terrible is happening. The clones have betrayed us. There are no answers to your questions, not yet.” It felt like Cal’s whole body had been dunked in ice water. The only thing he could do was drift after Master Tapal as he kept speaking. “We need to get off this ship. Quickly.”

They had trained for this scenario. But it had been fun. Commander Nova and his squad had pretended to be battle droids hunting him across the ship while he snuck through maintenance hatches and vents towards the escape pods. The first time Cal made it without getting caught Sargent Twitch had given him a handful of the Coruscanti candies he kept hidden in his locker.

This time, it was for real. He could feel Master Tapal’s worry through the force as the two of them split up. The ducts and maintenance halls had never felt so narrow as they did now when Cal crawled through them trying not to make a sound the whole time. In the dim light he jumped every time a shadow looked like a hand or a trooper helmet. The worst was the noise in the distance.

The hum of a lightsaber and the echo of blaster fire roared through the ship, louder than any battlefield. Every single cry, every single shout about finding Master Topal, Cal could put a name to every single one. That one was Nurse, who’d patched up Cal when he’d gotten a graze from a blaster. The one who was issuing orders as he ran above Cal’s hiding place was Lieutenant Kicks, who always told the best stories over dinner. Each clone that raised a blaster to his general and hunted down Cal had been a friend.

The trek through the Albedo Brave’s guts took forever and a second all at once, with Cal stumbling out near the escape pods with scratches in his hands and tears in his robes. Master Tapal was only a step behind as he ran into the room deflecting blaster shots.

“Cal, the door!”

Cal scrambled to obey his Master. He dashed over to the control panel on the wall and began tapping at the buttons with shaking fingers. He managed to close off the door with the advancing clone troopers and felt a split second of relief as he began punching in the codes for the escape pod.

The relief dissolved as soon as he heard the sound of another door opening and blaster fire echoing off the metal paneled walls.

Ten clone troopers entered guns blazing, advancing slowly on the cornered Master and Padawan. From the quick glance over his shoulder Cal recognized the painted armor. This was Glow squadron. His squadron. Cal gasped for breath through his panic and tried to get the escape pod codes right. He missed one button, and heard Master Tapal grunt in pain and smelled the terrifying scent of blaster-burned flesh. He missed a second and felt Master Tapal stumble back, brushing against Cal.

Cal turned as the escape pod opened and Master Tapal fell to his knees. Heart in his throat, Cal jumped in front of his Master. Even if he’d had his lightsaber in hand he would never have stood a chance against the clones. These were his closest friends on the ship. His own squad. Blaster fire whizzed past his ears and into the pod as Cal tried to back in and push Master Tapal behind him.

Then pain. More pain than Cal had ever felt burned across his face. A blaster bolt, his mind supplied as he turned with the force of it. Cal stumbled back, but kept his footing. He couldn’t afford to fall now. If he did, they would both be dead.

“Now!”

“Lets get them!”

Two troopers broke rank and dashed forwards towards the escape pod. Cal couldn’t think, only scramble inside half blind and in pain and slam his hand against the panel where he knew the door controls were. Three slams later the doors shut with the two troopers just managing to slide in as the doors shut behind them.

“We have you now, Jedi,” said one, Sargent Twitch. He had taught Cal how to take apart and clean the very same blaster he was now leveling at his face.

The other, Lieutenant Sunny, was aiming at Master Tapal’s prone form.

“Please, don’t…” Cal begged, hands raised as he tried to stand over his master. 

Sunny and Twitch’s fingers wrapped around their triggers. Cal ducked his head, tears stinging at the fresh blaster wound on his face.

Behind them, the Albedo Brave exploded.

The shockwave was enough to rock the tiny pod as it hurtled towards Bracca. Sunny and Twitch were thrown off balance and Cal instinctively reached out through the force to them. On the ship he hadn’t been able to feel any of the clones in the force. And here it was no different. Yet faintly as a star in a neighbouring system he felt their spirits glowing deep in the force. Without knowing quite what he was doing Cal reached for their small lights and _pulled_. He grunted with the effort, closing his eyes and concentrating. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing, just that it was something and that something was keeping Twitch and Sunny from blasting him. Their lights in the force were getting steadily bigger with every heartbeat until they shone brightly and both clones dropped with a cry of pain.

Cal lowered his hands and blinked his eyes open. The flashing lights in the pod swam before his eyes. Something warm dripped down his chin but Cal couldn’t bring himself to care. The jolt of his knees hitting the metal floor made his teeth click together harshly. He slid sideways onto Master Tapal, one hand clinging gently to his Master’s larger purple one. Distantly, he thought he could hear Master Tapal say something. There was a rumble in the chest beneath Cal’s ear, but it was all to much. The Clones turning on them, the blaster to the face, whatever he just used to force to do. Darkness washed over Cal’s eyes and he let himself drift off.

When the pod hit Bracca’s surface none of the four inhabitants were awake to see the spectacular dawn that rose over the surface.


	2. Chapter 1 - Arrival

Twitch woke with the largest headache of his short life. He felt a clanker had taken his helmet and shook it around with his head still inside. Taking stock before moving was trained into him. Two legs, two arms, and he could wiggle all his fingers and toes, so that was a bonus. It was just his head that throbbed and ached. He groaned and opened his eyes to sunlight filtering through his visor.

Wait. Sunlight?

The last thing Twitch remembered was being on board the Albedo Brave, joking with the rest of Glow squadron as they took care of their armour.

Heart rate rising and feeling instantly more alert Twitch pushed himself upright and tried desperately to remember what mission they were on, and more importantly, where their _jetii’ika_ was.

Surroundings first: He was planetside, Bracca judging from his last known position of the Brave and the gathering storm clouds outside. He was in an escape pod, the windows cracked and the controls sparking. A crash landing then. A bucket decorated with a yellow sun was by his foot. Sunny was with him.

These were all confusing, but not distressing. What was distressing was the unmoving lump shoved up under the controls. With any of Nurse’s rants about head injuries thrown out the window Twitch was up and scrambling over, accidentally kicking Sunny straight in the bucket on the way over and ignoring the groans that followed. What he found made his heart stop. The general was lying face up, pressed against the wall of the pod at an awkward angle. His eyes were half lidded and distant, and Twitch didn’t need to press his shaking hands against General Tapal’s neck to know he was long gone.

What concerned him more was the small unmoving form of their little commander curled against the general’s body. With gentle hands Twitch carefully turned Cal over and felt his heart drop. Cal’s face was a mess. An ugly, fresh blaster burn streaked across his face from the bridge of his nose to just below his ear and the lower half of his face was crusted in dried blood. Twitch carefully wiped away some of the blood and gently pressed his fingers to Cal’s neck. A steady pulse thrummed against his fingers and Twitch slumped in relief.

“Wha’s goinon?” slurred Sunny somewhere behind Twitch.

“Get the med kit,” said Twitch. The blaster burn on Cal’s face needed bacta. And Twitch needed whatever painkiller he could find for his headache.

“I need the med kit,” said Sunny with a groan, but as Twitch looked over he could see Sunny rolling onto his hands and knees and take a steading breath. He could pinpoint the exact moment Sunny saw General Tapal and Cal even with his helmet on.

“What happened!”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” said Twitch.

“Last I remember we were on the Brave and in orbit above Bracca.”

Twitch nodded, and regretted it as the pain made him feel nauseous. “We can figure out what happened after we patch up our _jetii’ika_. He took a blaster to the face.”

Sunny was up and moving without complaint after that, though he staggered into the wall on his way to retrieve the med kit stashed by the entry hatch. He fumbled with the latch that kept it strapped to the wall, armoured fingers sliding across the mechanism in their haste.

Twitch turned his attention back to their _jetii’ika_. He carefully pulled Cal away from General Tapal’s cold body and into his arms and finished wiping away the blood. Cal’s face was pale, the spattering of freckles across his nose stood out in sharp contrast against his milky skin. It was their job to protect him when General Tapal couldn’t and Twitch couldn’t help but feel that same rush of protectiveness rising in him stronger than ever. The day Commander Tapal brought his new Padawan on board the Albedo Brave was the day the 13th battalion fell in love with Cal Kestis. They couldn’t help it. The kid was shy, but from the very first clumsy salute he offered them to the fierce, unpolished fighting style he showed on the battlefield they unanimously agreed that this was their _jetii’ika_ and they would be his _vode_. Nothing about that would change now. Even if it was just himself and Sunny left, the two of them would be by his side no matter what. _Vode_ , forever.

“Here, bacta,” said Sunny as he knelt down beside the pair. “And stim for each of us.”

Twitch made sure to apply the bacta patches to Cal before accepting the offered painkillers. The stim felt like heaven as it chased away his headache in seconds. He sighed in relief and popped off his helmet, letting it roll away into the darkness underneath the control panel. The lightning bolts that decorated it whirled as it went. Sunny’s own helmet joined it a few moments later.

“We need to move. The damned droids could be here any minute,” said Twitch.

“They haven’t found us yet, and I think we’ve been here a while.”

“Still, we should get the kid somewhere safe and try and contact the Albedo Brave.”

“There should be a scrapper camp not far from here if my memory’s right. Think this is where we had that fun to-do with the droids, you know, the one where he learned how to slow one of those big tanks,” said Sunny with a gesture at Cal.

“Only you would call one of our worst battles a ‘fun to-do’.”

“Come on, I’ll lead the way,” said Sunny with a smile. It was thin and didn’t reach his eyes, but it was there and Twitch would latch on to any piece of normalcy he could get right now.

Twitch grabbed his helmet before gathering up Cal in his arms and standing, but the movement jostled something. General Tapal’s lightsaber rolled across the floor and landed at Sunny’s feet.

“Guess we should keep this safe for now. We can’t take him back with us but we can bring this back to the temple for him,” said Sunny as he picked up the lightsaber reverently.

The two of them looked at each other before glancing down at General Tapal. It felt so wrong to leave him behind. Other Jedi had fallen in the war, but General Tapal had always seemed somehow above that. Untouchable. Like even if he was faced with a thousand droids alone he would still prevail and have energy enough to teach his Padawan how to survive such an attack.

“It’s not goodbye, Twitch,” said Sunny, sensing the issue. “He’s just marching on ahead. We’ll see him again when its time.”

“Yeah,” said Twitch slowly. He took one last look at the general before turning away and following Sunny out of the pod. Another name for tonight’s prayers.

The ground was slick with mud and the air heavy with rain. The journey to the scrapper camp was unpleasant to say the least, and later Twitch wouldn’t be able to remember much of it beyond the rain and attempting to keep Cal as dry as he could. By the time the distant lights of the work yard and the twinkling from the scrapper’s ramshackle homes came into view all three of them were soaked to the bone.

Curiously, they hadn’t spotted any other of the 13th battalion’s troopers or any clanker activity on their way towards the camp. If they had been forced to escape during an attack the planet would be crawling with droids on the lookout and other clones looking to regroup. Even the comms channels were silent despite Sunny’s repeated attempts at contacting the ship.

Even curiouser was the lack of movement inside the scrapper camp. When they had visited the last time they were planetside the camp had been full of workers buzzing about despite the blaster fire less than a kilometer away from the edge of camp. Something about getting the biggest payday off the downed ships and droids. Yet as they approached now it was still. If it weren’t for the lights and the lack of blaster holes in the walls Twitch would have said it had been abandoned in the wake of a battle.

_“…thanks to the clone troopers for acting quickly to secure the republic’s safety. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has been instated as Emperor Palpatine and is promising peace to the galaxy, shouldn’t be hard for him after catching the Jedi betrayal. News out of Coruscant is limited right now, but stay tuned for all the latest updates.”_

The tinny voice of a broadcast holo echoed through the ramshackle camp. Every house had it on. A stone sank in Twitch’s stomach. Something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. He wasn’t quite sure what, but there was clearly anti-Jedi sentiment being spread. A glance at the stiff line of Sunny’s shoulders meant he was also on edge with this new information. So much for asking one of the locals to borrow a comm link.

Instead the two of them spread out, looking for somewhere to hide themselves and their _jetii’ika_. They crept around houses, ducking under windows and dashing past doors. Twitch felt they might not have even bothered, everyone was glued to their holos telling them that the Jedi order were traitors to the republic.

By the time they found the empty place on the edge of the camp Twitch and Sunny were more or less filled in on all the repeating details. It wasn’t much. someone had taken the body of a droid tank and mashed it together with the half of the hold of a small transport ship. Some half-rotten wooden dividers split the space into a bedroom, a refresher, and a modest living space. A thick layer of dust meant that whoever had lived here, they hadn’t been around for a while.

Gently, they placed Cal onto the bed, drying him off as best they could with the dusty blankets that had been left behind. Cal didn’t so much as twitch even as they gently pulled off his outer layers and hung them to dry over one of the room dividers. Sunny tucked General Tapal’s lightsaber in the crook of Cal’s arm before smoothing back his hair and the two of them made their way back into the living space.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Twitch as he stripped off his armour and sank heavily onto the cold floor.

“Bracca’s not that bad. We could hide out here, try and figure out what’s going on. Maybe sell the pod for scrap and get a few credits,” said Sunny as he did the same. “We have to try and get to a proper communication line and see if we can contact anyone on the Albedo Brave.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Twitch. He sighed and leaned back before starting the daily prayer in a quiet voice. “ _Ni su’cuyi, gar kyr’adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my attempt at mando'a:  
> -jetii'ika: Little jedi  
> -vode: brothers  
> -The last sentance is a mandalorian prayer, meaning that those who have died are eternal in memory, and is followed by a list of names of those who have passed.
> 
> For the most part this fic will be in Cal's POV, but the clone boys gonna have their two cents thrown in from time to time.
> 
> Like this fic? want more? the comment button is right there!


	3. Chapter 2 - Bracca

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for commenting & kudosing this story!

Bracca was, and always will be, a miserable place in the galaxy. It rained more often than not, was a breeding ground for illness and vice, and seemed to be a favourite place for the newly formed Empire to conduct inspections. It was also the best place to hide a Padawan. Or at least, it was a decent place to hide a Padawan if you couldn’t get off planet. At least, that’s how Sunny and Twitch put it to Cal when he asked a few years into their stay.

When Cal had woken up after the escape pod with one eye red from burst capillaries and a face that felt like it was on fire his first instinct was to run from the two clones. Weak from his escape of the Albedo Brave he had chosen instead to hide under the cot for about a week, despite Twitch and Sunny’s attempts to coax him out with the meagre food they could scrounge up in their first few days. Cal would watch them come and go, timing it so that he could slip out of his hiding place and grab something before retreating into his hidey hole. He spent the days curled around Master Tapal’s lightsaber under the cot listening to their hushed conversations and wondering when they were going to snap and shoot him too.

The first thing Cal saw them bring back that truly showed how far they were from the Albedo Brave were clothes. It was weird seeing clones in anything other than a uniform. The blue and orange garments of the scrappers on Sunny and Twitch drove home how much had changed in a day. They’d brought back a smaller set for Cal, clearly tailored to one of the shorter alien races but it was serviceable enough when Cal snuck it back into his burrow and tried it on.

After a week without Twitch or Sunny grabbing their blasters and shooting him Cal carefully emerged from his hidey hole and sat beside them as they ate their evening meal. He tried not to notice the clones sending each other identical looks over his head as he reached for some of the rehydrated rations. 

“So uh, I’m going to be starting work at the scrap yard tomorrow,” said Twitch experimentally. “We both got work there. No one’s looked at us sideways for being clones.”

Cal just nodded as he chewed on his food.

“That’s right. We’ll work opposing shifts so one of us will always be able to keep an eye on you, Cal,” said Sunny. He put on a smile that Cal supposed was meant to be reassuring.

“What happened to Master Tapal?” asked Cal in a small voice.

Both the clones froze. Twitch’s mouth set into a hard line and Sunny’s brows drew together and his eyes got suspiciously shiny.

“He didn’t make it,” said Sunny gently, resting a hand on Cal’s small shoulder.

“We didn’t just leave him though. We went back and buried him with all the dignity we could offer. I can take you out there, if you’d like,” offered Twitch.

“Oh,” was all Cal could say. He stared down at the dull metal floor of their home. It was his fault Master Tapal was gone, he knew it. If he’d been faster with the doors, or braver, or just a more competent Padawan Master Tapal wouldn’t have had to look out for him like that.

“We’re so sorry, kid. But we’ll get you back to the Jedi, we promise,” said Twitch as he wrapped an arm around Cal’s shoulders and gently squeezed. Cal tensed, suddenly afraid of the proximity. Twitch thankfully let go quickly but Cal scooted back as much as he could to put some distance between himself and the clones.

“Speaking of, there’s been a lot of anti-Jedi sentiment on the holonet. It might be best if you uh, didn’t carry the lightsaber around and well, you do look the part,” said Sunny. His eyes lingered on Cal’s Padawan braid.

Cal reached up and fiddled with it. The smooth bead at the end of it was cool against his fingertips. Master Tapal had braided it in himself, and the bead was the bright yellow of the 13th battalion.

“I’m sorry, Cal. But hair grows back, right?” said Sunny.

Cal nodded. He took off the braid with Master Tapal’s lightsaber before he had enough time to psych himself out of it. There was the hum of the lightsaber followed by the smell of burned hair and the braid fell limply into Cal’s hand. He looked down at it where the hairs had burned black and melted together. It was ugly now, and Cal felt its absence far deeper than the feel of it against his shoulder. At least the braid was still together. He got up and tore a piece off his Padawan robes and gently folded the braid inside. He didn’t quite know why he wanted to keep it. Maybe to prove to someone at the temple he really had been a Padawan. Whatever the reason he tucked it into a pocket. As for the lightsaber, there was no way he was going to leave it behind.

“We’re hoping to get enough credits to get a comm link to contact the ship. I’m sure they’re looking for us by now,” said Twitch. He’d been talking at Cal since he’d stood. Twitch was never good at keeping quiet. It was something the Commander berated him about after every mission Glow Squadron went on.

Cal froze. The ship. The explosion. He’d known that Twitch and Sunny had forgotten their murderous rampage against himself and Master Tapal, but somehow didn’t factor in that they wouldn’t know about the ship either.

“It’s gone,” said Cal in a voice barely above a whisper.

“What?”

“The Albedo Brave was destroyed.”

“What do you mean destroyed?” asked Twitch, leaping to his feet. “Is that why we were in the pod? Was it an attack?”

Cal cowered as Twitch came closer, sliding towards the cot and then back under it as Twitch advanced. His fingers held the lightsaber in a white-knuckled grip, even as Sunny pulled Twitch away.

“You’re scaring our _jetii’ika_ , Twitch,” said Sunny in a low voice. “This is just a change of plans. We get a transport out of Bracca and get him back to Coruscant. We can do our duty by our _vode_ and make sure he gets home safely.”

“But Sunny, what happened? The Brave’s gone, General Tapal was killed, Cal’s been hiding under that cot for a week!” Twitch’s voice steadily rose, before breaking at the end.

“I don’t know Twitch, I don’t know. For now all we can do is look out for Cal and get back to Republic space,” Sunny said in the same gentle voice.

Twitch sighed and slumped. “You’re right.”

“Of course. Listen to your senior officer,” Sunny teased. “Come on, in a few weeks we’ll be back in Coruscant.”

The two of them trudged back into the main room and sat back at their meal. Cal just curled tighter around the lightsaber. It felt like the only connection to the Jedi he had left with his Master dead and his Padawan braid tucked away in a scrap of his robes.

A few weeks turned into a few months. The three of them listened to the republic’s slow fall over the holonet and sat stunned as the Empire took its place. The people on Bracca and across the galaxy forgot that the Jedi had lived to help them and believed the Empire’s broadcasts about how the Jedi had been planning to overthrow the republic and take over the Galaxy. There were reports on the Purge, of clone troopers rising up against their Jedi commanders and murdering them in cold blood and while Cal didn’t say anything to Twitch and Sunny, they could put the pieces together of what probably happened on the Albedo Brave. Their main concern was Cal. They still had their obligation to their Padawan, who was slowly warming back up to them. It took many long days to start rebuilding the trust they’d had before the purge.

As for Cal, it took months for him to be brave enough to try and connect with the force. The last time he’d consciously used it was when he pulled Twitch and Sunny’s lights out of the darkness on the shuttle. The result wasn’t pretty. Cal found himself trapped in the memories of the escape from the Albedo Brave, and the force felt like an overwhelming tide. It was consuming him, dragging him down into those memories despite his attempts to claw his way back to the surface. When he’d come out of it he was drenched in sweat with Sunny hovering over him and Twitch pacing at the foot of the cot.

Cal didn’t try again after that.

Instead he joined the scrappers guild with Sunny and Twitch, who were both less than thrilled when Cal came home with the tattooed brand still puffy and red on his wrist. At least Cal was doing something other than waiting for the new Empire to find him. Credits were credits, and Cal found himself being something of a hot commodity around the scrapyard. He was small enough to slide through the inner workings of the ships, and nimble enough from his Jedi training to scramble across any narrow ledge or leap any gap without waiting for a transport to lift him across. The only thing he had to watch out for were echoes. Without being able to consciously use the force, it was free to take over at the least opportune moments and show him the memories of the pilots and crews that had been on the ships he was scrapping. And with most being ships from the republic fleet there were plenty of echoes to be found. Every single one left Cal breathless and worn out from the rush of emotions that weren’t his own.

Sometimes he told Twitch and Sunny about what he saw, but often Cal would keep it to himself. They worried enough with the Empire searching Bracca every few months for potential Jedi and other rebels. Every visit they’d pick off one or two unfortunate people. Someone who was caught with contraband materials or accidentally voiced a pro-Jedi sentiment to another scrapper who ratted them out.

They’d managed to make a few acquaintances as the months turned into years. Cal had found Prauf, who’d taken a shine to him and looked out for him as they worked together on jobs where Sunny and Twitch were on the other side of the scrapyard. Prauf kept telling Cal he was too young for the job, too young to be tied to Bracca, even as years passed and Cal shot up like a weed until he was nearly as tall as Twitch and Sunny and his Padawan life seemed like nothing more than a distant memory or hazy dream. The only solid reminder being the small scrap of fabric tucked away in their ramshackle home and the weight of the lightsaber hidden in a secret pocket in Cal’s belt pouch.

But, as with all things, their relatively peaceful time on Bracca was destined to come to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, enter the Mantis and Trilla!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took too long but hey 2020 has me blink and two months have gone by.

Cal didn’t know what to think. He’d used the force. Actively used it to save Prauf. There hadn’t been a lot of time to process it in the moment, what with Prauf getting trapped and trying to steer the broken speeder as much as possible but now, sitting on the train on the way back to the collection of ramshackle homes he called his neighbourhood Cal couldn’t help but think about how the force had listened without punishing him after all these years.

Sunny and Twitch stared at him from across the train. Both knew something was up but didn’t say anything. Not in front of all the workers they didn’t know. The two of them kept sending Cal some unsubtle glances however. The mother hens.

Prauf kept trying to talk to Cal, making him even more nervous. He didn’t know if anyone had seen what happened, but if they had Cal was a dead man. The best plan was to get out of this scrap heap for a while and get to another. It meant he wouldn’t see Prauf for a while but it would be worth it if they all stayed safe from the Empire. He sighed and settled against the wall of the train. Hopefully the whole thing would be forgotten in a week and he and the clones could laugh about that one time his old Jedi powers slipped through.

Cal must’ve fallen asleep with the movement of the train. He came to when he felt Prauf move. A spike of fear ran through Cal. He knew Prauf, had known him for years, but the bounty on Jedi was enough to get someone off of Bracca and to a more comfortable life in the core. He looked around for Sunny and Twitch, but they had disappeared. With dread pooling in his stomach Cal got up to follow Prauf.

Following a seven foot stocky person proved more difficult than Cal thought. Prauf seemed able to slide by the crowds of scrappers in the train cars where Cal had to dodge and excuse himself the whole way through. After the third car there were fewer people and still no sign of Sunny or Twitch. The train seemed too dark as well. Sunset, while hard to discern most days on Bracca, shouldn’t be for another hour or two. Still, Cal followed Prauf through what felt like endless doors between cars until he came to one that wouldn’t open. Cal’s stomach felt like it dropped out through his boots. What if Prauf had led him here so that he could be caught in an empty train car. No fuss from other scrappers and no Sunny and Twitch to help him. Cal pressed the door button over and over, movements getting more rapid as his fear grew.

“Execute Order 66…” a distant, tinny voice said. Cal almost thought it was just the sound of the train on the tracks, but something about it made him turn around.

The train car was gone. He was standing in a hall on a star destroyer. A droid scurried by and disappeared through the blast door behind him. The sound of his footsteps rang hollow against the metal floor as he cautiously moved forwards. The sound of the blast door closing made him jump. Heart pounding, there was no way to go but forwards.

He was not expecting to see Master Tapal through the next door. Cal’s heart beat a staccato rhythm against his ribcage as he scrambled back and away from Master Tapal. He couldn’t breathe, only stare unblinking as his master towered over him.

With a jolt Cal woke up, nearly slamming his head into the metal wall of the train. His heart was still hammering as he looked around from side to side, sure that Master Tapal would come bursting through the door at the far end of the train car or that it would fade back into the star destroyer. Instead he was met with looks of confusion from the other workers in the car and wariness from Twitch and Sunny. Then Cal noticed the train wasn’t gently rocking along its tracks, it sat still, though the station wasn’t the view through the small windows.

“Probably just another contraband check,” said Prauf, though his face was set in a frown.

The doors opened and the white helmeted heads of a handful of stormtroopers looked in. Cal sent a glance to Sunny and Twitch. Thankfully with all their work gear and the years on Bracca it was hard to tell they were clones. The two set their jaws in twin grimaces as they let the stormtroopers usher everyone out of the car. Cal’s heart hadn’t stopped its fast paced thundering since he woke up and it did not falter when he stepped out of the train and saw the purge trooper in their black armour.

Mud splashed over their boots as the workers all hesitantly climbed out of the train. A handful of stormtroopers conducting a check was nerve wracking, but not uncommon. A purge trooper? That wasn’t routine. Cal hadn’t even seen one before, only heard stories from of the other workers. The sight of them made him glad to have the tall presence of Prauf and the reassurance of the clones at his side.

The next sign this wasn’t an ordinary inspection was the shriek of a tie fighter overhead. Cal’s fingers itched for the sabre hidden in his pack as a woman clad in black emerged, surveying them all from behind an impassive helmet. Another woman, a towering dowutin, joined her from another ship and together they surveyed the workers lined in front of them. Sunny pressed a little closer into Cal’s side as they approached.

“Stay calm, Cal,” he said quietly.

Cal was finding that very hard to do as the first woman declared they were looking for a Jedi. He heard Twitch inhale sharply on the other side of Sunny. The dowutin was pacing the length of the line, towering over all the scrappers and glaring as if challenging anyone to try and fight her.

“Turn yourself in, or everyone present will face summary execution,” said the woman and Cal could almost hear the smile in her voice.

Every trooper present switched their weapons on and took aim. Cal’s breath caught in his throat. There were too many people here who were just trying to go home at the end of a day. Twitch and Sunny would never give him up, and Cal would never ask them to. But himself for them, for Prauf? Cal would do that in a heartbeat. He took a step forward and felt Sunny trying to reach for him. His fingers closed around the hem of Cal’s poncho as Prauf stepped forward and began going off about how the Empire made Bracca the scrap pit it was.

Sunny was tugging desperately on Cal’s poncho, trying to get him to back up and fall in line. Cal resisted. This was Prauf, his friend, who was doing something incredibly stupid just because he’d found out Cal was force sensitive. One hand reached back and felt for Master Tapal’s saber where it was hidden beneath his poncho. 

Then the woman had ignited a Sith red lightsaber straight through Prauf’s heart. There was surprise on Prauf’s face, before it went lax and softened into emptiness as his legs buckled and his body fell. For a second Cal was looking at Master Tapal’s body on the muddy ground. He tore free from Sunny’s grasp and charged towards the woman who’d killed Prauf. For the first time since he’d cut off his Padawan braid the saber ignited.

“No!” screamed Cal as he charged forwards. He wasn’t expecting the saber to be double-bladed, but muscle memory had him changing his stance without noticing.

“Look at this,” drawled the woman like fending off his attack was nothing, “a lightsaber.”

Cal grunted and turned his blade towards her side. Unfortunately, he was no longer a Padawan who trained relentlessly every day, and this was someone who held the sabre in her hand like she was born with it.

She thrust out a hand and her will through the force sent him flying back into the waiting grasp of the dowutin.

“No!”

“Put him down!”

Cal could hear Sunny and Twitch shouting but couldn’t do much more than wiggle in the dowutin’s hold. She turned and Cal watched the ground beneath his feet disappear as she held him over the edge of the cliff. Below Cal could see the cargo trains whizzing by and he tried to judge the distance. It was maybe sixty feet. Certain death for the average human, but Cal wasn’t quite one of those. He’d used one Jedi trick without punishment from the force today. Perhaps he could pull off another. At least it would mean the two women would chase after him and give Sunny and Twitch a chance to get away.

With a grunt of effort Cal ignited his sabre and slashed at the dowutin blindly. She roared in pain as Cal dropped like a stone. He barely had time to contemplate what a kriffing idiotic plan this was before he was crashing through the roof of a train car and fending off troopers. Mind blank with terror, Cal’s only thought was get to the front of the train. He didn’t know what came after that, but forward meant moving and not sticking around and waiting for the Empire to catch him.

The non-empire ship was a surprise. What was a luxury yacht doing in the middle of a firefight. He could’ve sworn he heard Sunny yell at him from somewhere, but by the time he managed to stop the three troopers that were trying to shock him with their batons the ship had moved on.

By the time Cal climbed navigated the wreckage of the still speeding train he’d been half convinced he’d imagined the yacht. He hauled himself on top of a train car and felt the rush of air from a ship overhead. Empire, small, and definitely gunning for him. He watched, dread pooling in his gut, as it turned and began firing on the train.

“This can’t be good,” Cal muttered as the train lurched, the track below finally giving out.

Cal stumbled and pinwheeled his arms as the car he was standing on tilted downwards. He landed roughly and barely had time to register yet another bruise before he began sliding down the slick metal. He slid through three cars to his estimate, trying his best not to slam into cargo or doors. Then he was skidding down an open car and waiting at the bottom of it was that luxury yacht. Its hatch was open and he could make out someone on the ramp.

“Jump! Now!” called a woman’s voice. She didn’t need to tell Cal twice. In his eyes it was jump for the ship or drop force knows how far and die.

The metal of the ramp was blessedly solid beneath Cal’s hands. He could see the woman, an older, dark skinned human making her way cautiously down the ramp towards him and foolishly breathed in a sigh of relief.

The sound of blaster fire against metal was deafening and the ship jerked away from Cal. Again he was falling, this time without knowing his destination. A small transport rushed up to meet him alarmingly fast and Cal had just enough presence of mind to tuck his head in as much as he could before he slammed into it. The impact knocked the air from his lungs but didn’t stop his fall. Gravity refused to lessen its grip no matter how Cal pleaded with it or the force.

Grabbing the droid was more instinctive than planned, but at least it slowed his fall enough that he did not end up as a very disgusting pancake. Even then, he had no room to breathe. The woman, the small, humanoid one, had landed her tie fighter above him and made a terrifying dramatic entrance.

There was nothing for it but to fight.

Cal ignited his saber, falling into a half-remembered stance as the woman walked forward with a predator’s easy grace. She was taunting him. Testing him with every step she took towards him. Cal was trying to ignore it in favour of desperately wracking his memory for everything Master Tapal had ever taught him about duelling.

“What Jedi gave their life so that you might live?” Her voice broke through Cal’s whirling thoughts.

Cal saw red. He lunged forward with a growl, sweeping his lightsaber down. She blocked easily, pushing his blade aside as if his strength was nothing to her. She let Cal try a few more shaky blows before she went on the offensive.

The woman was fast. Very fast. It was all Cal could do to keep up with her. Every muscle in his arms screamed as he parried her blade. She lunged, twisting around Cal’s blade and stabbing at his side before hopping back out of his range. Cal only barely followed her enough to block her.

The woman jumped in the air above him, blade ready and pointed straight at Cal. He did the only thing he could think of and threw himself out of the way and rolling across the platform to scramble ungracefully to his feet. The woman chased him down and hammered Cal with blows that sent him stumbling backwards until she didn’t pull away, instead leaning down on him with both her weight and the power of the force. Cal grit his teeth and pushed back as hard as he could. Kriff, what was he doing but delaying the inevitable. She was stronger and far more skilled with a lightsaber than he had ever been.

The whine of an engine distracted both of them. Cal looked to his left to see the fin of the Stinger yacht rising up to level with them. A prickling feeling told Cal to jump back just as the ship fired on the platform right at the masked woman and himself. It wasn’t enough to clear the blast but at least Cal didn’t have holes in him as he skidded back across the metal.

“Get on board!”

Cal turned and saw the same dark skinned woman as before leaning out the door of the ship with a blaster in hand. He scrambled to his feet and ran for it. Better to live a few more seconds on a ship than die right now to the Empire.

The woman grabbed his arm as soon as Cal walked onto the ramp and practically threw him inside. Her dark eyes barely spared him a glance, instead focussing on shooting covering fire into the smoke.

“Captain!” she shouted as she slammed her hand into the door control panel.

The ship began lifting away at her command. Cal raced into the cockpit for lack of anywhere else to go. His heart was still pounding hard enough to force the air from his lungs with every breath. Cal was so caught up in escaping he didn’t even register his lightsaber was still lit until he nearly skewered someone with it.

“Watch it, kid,” said a familiar voice in a gentle tone. It broke through Cal’s panic and he looked up into Sunny’s face. There was a fresh cut above his brow, Cal noticed.

“Sorry,” said Cal as he sheathed his saber. “Sorry. Wait, how?’

Sunny’s lips twitched as Cal stuttered his question and squeezed his shoulder. He maneuvered Cal into the cockpit where Twitch was sitting in the co-pilot chair, one foot bootless and swollen at the ankle. The relief at seeing the two of them alive and relatively in one piece was incredible. Cal was sure the purge troopers would’ve killed everyone the moment he dropped onto the train.

It didn’t escape Cal’s notice that Sunny had put himself between Cal and their mystery saviours. However, he didn’t have a chance to start feeling nervous about that before the Sith woman was somehow clinging like a spider to the outside of the ship and wrestling control away from the latero captain.

The ship spun around them. Cal grabbed hold of the back of Twitch’s chair to stay upright against the force of it. Nausea bubbled up Cal’s throat as the spin picked up speed. Cal closed his eyes and begged the force to end it one way or another.

The ship gave a horrible shuddering jerk and the spinning stopped. Huh. Cal filed that away to think about later. As it was, he opened his eyes just in time to see their unwanted attachment go flying into the dull grey clouds of Bracca. The latero grabbed the steering block and got the ship out of atmo quicker than Cal could count the fingers on his hand. The second they were clear of Bracca the latero made the jump to hyperspace and gave a heaving sigh of relief.

Cal didn’t know quite what to feel. Bracca was behind him. They were free. It had been so many years since he or the clones had been in space he had forgotten the feeling of artificial gravity and the smell of ship filtered air. When Cal had imagined leaving Bracca it had been to the tune of a celebration.

As Sunny let go of Cal and squared his shoulders Cal got the feeling that this was going to be very different from his imagination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not suuuper happy with this chapter and it really got away from me. I meant to get to meeting Cere and Greez at the 1k mark but uhhh this happened instead. 
> 
> Next time. Bogano and BD-1!!


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